Articles by: James Swackhammer
Have you ever had an old fan with the metal cage still run like a champ but found that a newer plastic fan seems to die within a year or two of usage? Ever been on the freeway and saw someone’s hub cap wobbling and…
In my opinion, the SOLIDWORKS Center of Mass is an underrated reference dimension. Many designers use it to see where the bulk of the weight is. This can determine if weight needs to be added, subtract weight or reorganize items to get the desired balance….
We’re going to start making lumber profiles to be used as weldments and smart blocks (in later articles). With a regular SOLIDWORKS part template open we’re going to modify this heavily. I’ll start with adding in a material of Spruce. If you don’t know how…
Creating a Sheet metal cone in SOLIDWORKS can seem like a complex task, but I’m here to alleviate your worries and provide you with the correct workflow. I typically like to start my first sketch on the Top Plane. Using my sheet metal open sketch…
Wait, hold up, stop the bus, what do mean you can read this very specific SOLIDWORKS only font on your computer without having SOLIDWORKS installed? There are some occasions where you may need to read or analyze files on a different computer that may not…
Do you ever get this SOLIDWORKS Missing Font warning when trying to open a part that came from someone else? “Use a temporary replacement font.” Basically this means you don’t have the font the other person used, which means SOLIDWORKS will pick a font of…
I previously showed you how to create etch marks using existing geometry from Hole Wizard holes. Having redundancies can prevent mistakes and help out manufacturing. This is sort of like the carpentry saying of “measure twice, cut once”. Having a callout of the Hole Wizards…
Several times in my career I’ve had rush jobs that need an estimate right away, or, the material might be a long lead request/special order coming from another city or in some cases a different country. Having the basic dimensions of a part can help…
When designing sheet metal parts within SOLIDWORKS you may want to add in etch marks to be etched later by the laser or HD plasma machines. Adding etch marks helps communication for later options. My example here is a part that’s going to be laser…